SocialToaster,
the social marketing platform, today revealed the four rules for running
a successful social media brand program, according to some of America’s
biggest and best professional sports teams. These professional sports
teams included the Detroit Pistons, Indianapolis Colts and Baltimore
Ravens who are sharing their expertise as SocialToaster launches
SocialToaster FANACTIVE, which helps professional sports teams harness
social media to amplify their messages, exponentially increasing their
online reach while driving website traffic, fan advocacy, and ticket
sales. According to these teams, the four social media rules are: Create
Content No One Else Is Making; Balance Quantity with Quality (Not
Quality over Quantity); Don’t Use One Voice – Use Many; and Sharing
beats Stalking.

Create Content No One Else Is Making

“You have to listen, analyze and adjust the content you are providing
your fans,” said Mike Donnay, Senior Director, Brand Networks of Palace
Sports & Entertainment and The Detroit Pistons. “In our case, what we’ve
learned by analyzing our social metrics is that fans want exclusive
behind the scenes content that you can’t get from other media outlets
like ESPN. Our Instagram feed, for example, is all behind-the-scenes
photos that you can’t get anywhere else. But that’s not something we
simply created from our plan, but from using social listening and
monitoring tools to understand what fans want. We then use these
insights to optimize our social strategy to deliver unique content to
each of our social channels.”

Balance Quantity with Quality (Not Quality over Quantity)

“The rule used to be ‘do not overload your fans with too many posts,’”
said Baltimore Ravens Super Fan and Social Media Strategist AK Stout.
“Then Facebook changed their algorithms and now any given post only
reaches about 16% of your fan base. The general rule for Facebook now is
‘post as often as you want’, up to 5 times a day – evenly timed. For
Twitter, you can tweet 30 times a day and it’s probably ok. People are
unlikely to see all of your posts, so as long as you are sharing
valuable info, most followers will be ok with it. For Pinterest, it
works a little bit differently – you really can post as many times daily
as you want. Users don’t have to follow everything a brand pushes out –
they opt in to follow specific “boards” which allows them to tailor what
content they want to receive.”

Don’t Use One Voice - Use Many

“All digital channels are not equal,” added Daniel Plumlee, Director of
Interactive Media for The Indianapolis Colts. “Sports teams have a huge
range in a fan’s age. Each age likes to consume media in their own way.
You have to tailor your message to each channel. You have to provide
content they will find valuable.”

“We operate on the philosophy that we need to be wherever our fans are,”
said Michelle Andres, Vice President, of Digital Media for the Baltimore
Ravens. “We are very active on Facebook and Twitter but you also have to
look at Google Plus and Pinterest. In fact, you never know what is going
to come along and turn into the next Facebook. You have to be flexible –
social networks are changing all the time.”

Sharing Beats Stalking

“People don’t want to stalk brands on social media and just passively
receive updates - they want to be able to share the team’s content,”
said Baltimore Ravens Super Fan and Social Media Strategist AK Stout.
“Brands can look at sports teams that use SocialToaster as an example.
By using Super Fans to spread content about a sports team, SocialToaster
empowers true brand evangelists while creating more fan engagement.
SocialToaster is a game changer because it’s easy for both the brand and
the user.”

ABOUT SOCIAL TOASTER

SocialToaster, with corporate headquarters in Baltimore, Maryland, is a
fan engagement and message amplification platform that provides a simple
way to amplify the reach of messages on social networking sites by
making content sharing fun and easy. SocialToaster mobilizes Super Fans
of media and entertainment brands, sports teams, and other
enterprise-level organizations to increase fan engagement, propel
website traffic, strengthen brand loyalty, and drive revenues. As an
alternative to traditional advertising, SocialToaster helps clients
monetize the social channel by increasing the visibility of posts and
maximizing their potential reach in a repeatable, measurable way.

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